The Soyuz TMA-17M rocket launched at 5:02 p.m. EDT Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This particular launch has been delayed due to problems with Russia’s Progress spacecraft. NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko will stay on the ISS for the next five months as part of the second portion of Expedition 44.
Advertisement
Nine minutes later, the spacecraft was separated from the rocket as scheduled, according to the Russian Space Agency, marking a successful launch.
This mission was postponed in May after the Soyuz-2.1a rocket failed the month before during the launch of the Progress M-27M unmanned cargo vessel carrying supplies for the ISS.
Crew commander Kononenko, who has been to the ISS before, says he’s focused on the mission ahead.
The Soyuz-FG booster rocket with the space capsule Soyuz TMA-14M…
A multinational crew, including NASA’s Dr. Kjell Lindgren, will head to the space station, restoring the outpost to its full six-person capacity.
The spacemen said they were Star Wars fans and had chosen the R2-D2 robot, a key character in the film series, as a zero-gravity indicator for their mission. They will propel it on its path through space. After separating, the craft began orbiting Earth before being slung toward ISS.
The three crewmembers will join NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko as the two veteran Space Station residents continue their year-long mission on the station. One solar array – a type of power supply that captures energy from the sun – did not deploy on time, but this did not affect the rocket’s flight as the others were still operating, the United States space agency said.
Advertisement
Sending the first man into space in 1961 and launching the first sputnik satellite four years earlier are among key accomplishments of the Russian space program and remain a major source of national pride in the country.
